Kierans says finishing the NFL should be a priority
WAYNE Kierans was supposed to be in Cork city at the weekend manning the sideline at the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Instead, the Louth boss was like the every other member of the population, stranded in social isolation with his family due to Covid-19.
The inter-county manager is right at the coalface from a sporting perspective, but he is as much in the dark as to how Covid-19 will affect the GAA landscape over the coming weeks and months.
Firstly, though, Kierans was quick to stress that none of his squad had contracted the virus at the time of speaking.
‘No thankfully not,’ he said. ‘We were healthy enough. Our doctor Louise has been fantastic with us, giving us advice, so it doesn’t look like it hit our camp, thank God. In that way we are obviously happy.’
In the days before GPA chief Paul Flynn issued their a statement imploring managers to adhere to a ban on collective training, Kierans and his management team were already considering that option - the right move in his eyes.
‘We didn’t make a decision to stop at that stage before the GPA announcement, but we were sort of discussing it,’ Kierans revealed.
‘The fact that we were travelling to Cork had a few of us concerned in terms of; we’re travelling overnight in a hotel etc. So we were discussing it, but like there was no discussion after the GPA statement. It was just pretty clear, from them, the GAA and the Government as well, so the decision was made easy for us after all those things happened.
‘What other decision could they have made really? When you see all the big sporting organisations and stuff happening around the world and the schools closing. The sporting bodies here had to follow suit and I think it was the right decision, it’s common sense.’
Although definitive in their action, Kierans reckons the decision to halt GAA action is still one shrouded with uncertainty.
‘I get the feeling with the GAA and other bodies, that the first announcement is a delay announcement,’ Kierans expressed.
‘Who is to say it will start back up on March 29th? They had to do a delaying tactic. Who knows what is going to happen after those deadlines.’
One of the potential scenarios at play, could be the voiding out of this season’s league entirely. If that resolution was to happen, Louth’s relegation from Division 3 this season would also be void. Kierans team would be one county that would benefit hugely, but he would rather that didn’t happen.
‘Yeah, well, that is the case,’ he acknowledged. ‘That would benefit Louth without a doubt and we probably wouldn’t have too many complaints if they did sort of abandon the league, the status of the leagues. But I think the best solution is to try and fulfil the fixtures. Whether they might be delayed, whether the championship might be delayed, try and get the games played.
‘The training to games ratio is really bad as it is. So, I think we would really like to get all the games played, but who knows? You’d be pretty selfish to suggest you want the leagues abandoned just because it suits yourself.’
One potential knock-on effect could be the scrapping of the Tailteann Cup. The new Tier 2 competition, in its maiden season, depends on the entrants’ league placing. Kierans would be very much welcome to that predicament.
‘I don’t know what other metric they would use to determine who goes into what, so if league tables are not defined over their full period I’m not sure what other choice they would have, but to leave the championship the way it was and defer Tier 2 till next year.
‘I don’t think I would have a problem with that, because I wasn’t a massive fan of Tier 2 anyway. We’ll have to see, but my preference would be get the leagues done.’
The delay also poses yet another headache for the GAA, the intrusion on April, the month set aside for club action.
‘It is a logistical nightmare no matter what way they want to do it,’ Kierans conceded.
‘So that’s where they might fall on the side of abandoning some league games and just try and continue with club month and Championship. I don’t know, it is going to take an awful lot of discussion from people a lot cleverer than myself to work all that out and that’s just our own situation here in Ireland. You can imagine what the other sporting organisations around the world are trying to do.
‘It is just unprecedented and nobody knows what is going to happen and we’ll just have to go with it, the same way we were happy to go with the major decision to adhere to bans and suspensions in the first place. We’ll just have to go with whatever decision is made.’
Ironically, planning for the unknown is something most intercounty managers are used to dealing with. Kierans feels that a possible quick-fire championship is very much a feasible scenario, something he and his squad are quite familiar with.
‘In terms of the championship preparation, with the April club month as it was, you really only had two weeks to prepare for the championship anyway,’ Kierans explained.
‘So if the Championship is thrust upon on us pretty quickly after all this is sorted, it won’t change something that’s been there. It just means, instead of a club month off, you might have, at this stage, two months off.
‘All we’ve asked the boys to do individually, is to get as much exercise and training in on their own. Obviously they are not allowed to do anything collective, so we would hope that they would keep themselves ticking over. We just have to sit tight, literally.’